Enterprise Architecture Management: Does my company need it and how can it help?

“Running a large company can be compared to managing a large city”,

— says Oleksii Gromyko. As with cities, rapid but unsystematic development often leads to a large number of problems that will be difficult to solve in the future. “We can, of course, build something separately, each according to their own judgment, but in the end, it will turn out to be very inconvenient, and the infrastructure will not keep up with the development of the separate parts of the city. This is why the role of the chief architect is so important,” explains the Managing Partner of the Bureau, illustrating his analogy. The main task of an architect, whether in a city or a large company, is to align the development of individual parts with the strategic goals and vision of the company as a whole. ‘Let’s make sure we don’t build something now that we’ll have to tear down in the future.’

Specialized software can help businesses with this task. Oleksii Gromyko elaborated on this in this interview.

— Oleksii, when might a company need enterprise architecture software?

— The main reason why leaders start to think about building enterprise architecture is related to its growth and development. Businesses typically begin with a small group of people, where everyone knows each other and works as a unified team. But as the number of employees grows to 50–100–200 people, this dynamic begins to change. The company becomes structured into functional areas, such as sales, marketing, finance, etc.

As the company grows, different departments start working independently. This process can be uneven. The key issue at this stage is the loss of a cohesive understanding of how each department functions. As the number of employees grows to 500-1000, the company requires an even complicated organizational model.

In addition to the organizational structure, companies also build project, process and information management frameworks. This is crucial for strategic management, as it allows leadership to better understand how to achieve goals in an increasingly complex environment.

— So, can growth become a problem for an organization at the same time?

— Yes, although growth is a positive process, there is still the risk of losing an understanding of what is going on within the company. Increasing complexity means that management may lose a clear picture of specific aspects that affect strategic goals. This will lead to situations where it is difficult to identify the causes of problems and find points of internal controls.

Often, these risks drive management to search for architectural frameworks that help structure and control organizational growth. Enterprise architecture frameworks help to understand different relations between processes, projects, information systems, organizational roles and capabilities needed to achieve the company’s strategic goals.

Pic. 1. Elements of Enterprise Architecture. Adapted based on TEAF.

— What issues does this approach help to solve?

— Let’s start with the fact that this approach answers the questions ‘why, what, and how exactly should we do it?’. It takes into account the company’s long-term, medium-term, and short-term objectives. It looks at how goals are achieved from the horizontal perspective. To build and visualize relationships between infrastructure, processes, locations, data, resources, specialized software can be useful.

This accelerates work and allows us to understand the connections that exist within the company. A person alone cannot manage such a large number of connections. Most importantly, it speeds up decision-making, and we begin to better understand where we need to put our efforts to get results.

—  What are the risks of not having Enterprise Architecture software in place?

— The risks are very similar to the opportunities we discussed. Without an understanding of the relationships between different organizational tangible and intangible assets, we:

• Do not know where exactly to put our efforts when we want to change something.
• Waste time when we need to clarify something, as the search for information takes too long.
• Can’t make the right decisions. Steps that seem correct within a limited perspective will be wrong if we look at the overall architecture of the organization and its strategy.

— Why is this important?

— A leader must understand the purpose behind all the changes happening in an organization. After all, any work is an investment of time, money, and people. There is a risk of wasting these resources without any benefit. We may fail to notice inefficiencies.

Enterprise architecture helps management quickly see what’s supporting or hindering progress toward their goals. It makes it easier to find the right people, align the strategy with the company’s mission, and ensure processes and projects match the strategic objectives.

— Is it correct to say that the CEO should always be the company’s architect?

— No, it depends on the company’s structure and size. This department can, for example, be part of the IT department, the project or process office, or even a separate structure within the organization.

— What other not-so-obvious benefits does a well-organized enterprise architecture bring to a business?

— Enterprise Architecture software is a convenient tool that helps to see the big picture. Often, enterprise architecture is supplemented by so-called performance management systems, the leader can see how their goals break down into tasks and, in this way, reach the level of individual employees.

This is very important, particularly because a common problem in large organizations is that employees on the ground do not understand how their actions contribute to achieving the company’s strategic goals. As a result, they see little meaning in their work.

This connection helps both the leader and the employee understand how the management can create a more comfortable environment. While the employee can make more effort to help their organization. It also allows people to feel more valued and better understand the meaning of their work, while different departments can collaborate to achieve the company’s strategic goals.